On Monday, the Republican House Intelligence Committee wrapped up its investigation into the ever-elusive “Trump-Russia collusion” and concluded that while Russia did try to meddle with the 2016 election, they weren’t specifically trying to get Donald Trump elected, nor did they work with the Trump campaign to do so.
President Trump responded to the expected but still welcome news via his favorite social media platform with even more vigor than usual, opting for the ALL CAPS response:
“THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION,” wrote Trump.
“We’ve found no evidence of collusion,” Texas Republican Rep. Michael Conaway told reporters Monday. While the investigation found what he described as “some bad judgment” and “inappropriate meetings,” there’s “no evidence of any collusion.”
“[O]nly Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, meetings, whatever, and weave that into some sort of a fiction, page-turner spy thriller,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “We’re not dealing in fiction, we’re dealing in facts, and we found no evidence of any collusion.”
While Trump was celebrating, his critics on the Left were scoffing at the committee’s findings. Among those who weren’t so thrilled about the investigation’s results was California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, who penned the Democrats’ response to the Republican declassified intelligence memo. The investigation, he insists, was not thorough enough to be conclusive. “There are a number of steps that I think any credible investigator would say, ‘These need to be done,’ and we still hope that they will be,” said Schiff.
Another high-profile Trump critic wasn’t impressed: Eric Holder. The former Obama-era attorney general, who was slapped with contempt of Congress for attempting to “coverup” tens of thousands of pages of evidence concerning “Fast & Furious,” accused the Republican committee of engaging in a “coverup.”
“Republican House Intell [sic] Comm shut down Russia probe before doing a complete job,” Holder tweeted. “This is a coverup and a lasting stain on the reputation of what used to be a bipartisan Committee when it was run by Republican Rogers and Democrat Ruppersberger. Politics beat a desire for the truth.”
Related: SHAPIRO: House Intelligence Committee, Run By GOP, To Declare No Trump-Russia Collusion